We Are MGroup™ – Interview with Christina Gwinn
Christina has been with MGroup for four years, and with an extensive customer service and operational support background, she brings nothing less than excellence to the MGroup family. She manages one of the busiest departments in the company, Project Support. To improve our customers’ experience, Christina inspired her team and worked diligently to streamline our process for bid requests resulting in faster completion rates. With Christina’s hard work and outstanding management, she has become one of our greatest assets to the company.
Learn more about Christina Gwinn in a one-on-one interview below.
What is your role at MGroup™?
CG: I am currently the Manager of Project Support, a role created for me in Jan. 2019 to help improve and streamline the processes of Project Support. After I was receptionist/assistant to the CEO for a few months, I was finally interviewed and hired for the Project Support Associate position I had originally applied for.
Eight months later, I was moved up from Project Support to Project Management, and 9 months later, I was moved from Project Management and promoted to Manager of Project Support. Pretty amazing to have started as a receptionist through a Temp. Agency and 4 years later, I’m the manager of the busiest department at MGroup that had improved leaps and bounds when I took it over thanks to the amazing women who work in my department.
We went from having a huge backlog of bid requests to our current completion rate of 99.89% for the year because they trusted me, listened to the guidance and direction I gave, and helped me develop a good working environment where everyone fits into an integral role best suited for their strengths. I believe that a manager is only as good as the people they manage, and my department makes me shine every day.
How did you end up working with MGroup™?
CG: I moved to LaGrange to live with my parents while I was going through a divorce in 2015 and was trying to find a job after being a stay-at-home-mom for 12 years. I had been praying that a job would become available to best fit mine and my family’s needs, so off to the Temp. Agency I went in search of one. I ended up seeing a position opened in the Project Support department at the MGroup, so I applied. Due to the many events and all the other business going on, no one was quite available to interview me for that position.
A couple of months went by, and the Temp. Agency reached out to me telling me that the MGroup had an immediate position to fill, and even though it wasn’t the position I had originally applied for, asked if I would be willing to go interview for it. Now here is when I know that it was God’s divine intervention because the person who interviewed me was none other than one of the women I had met at the church I started attending when I first moved to LaGrange. I was hired on the spot and started the following Monday as the receptionist/assistant to the CEO.
How long have you been with MGroup™?
CG: I have been with the MGroup for a little over 4 years since April 2017.
What do you enjoy most about working for MGroup™?
CG: I enjoy working with a great group of people, the fact that the MGroup is a small company where everyone is treated like family, and the jokes and laughter that keep the job fun. Everyone here celebrates each other’s accomplishments, prays for and supports each other through difficult times, and knows they can always ask someone for help when needed both inside and outside of the MGroup. We are not just co-workers, but we are also blessed to be friends.
What is your experience and background?
CG: I have been working since I was a small child doing ‘manual labor’ since I was the son my father never had, so I was always tasked with cutting grass, raking leaves, and other chores of that nature until I got my first paying job in food service at the age of 15yo. I had no background in the hospitality industry. Still, I had loads of customer service and operational support experience from my previous work experiences, and I was no stranger to working hard.
I am one of those people who always want to know more and what can be done to improve upon what is already in place, so I am always asking questions about everything. I strive to make a difference and improve upon what I already know and bring to the table. In every position, I have ever been in since I was 15yo., I have moved up. I am not satisfied with just being in one role and knowing one position; I want to know everything there is to know about the company I work for and to be able to look at it from all perspectives so I can not only be a better employee but a better leader if placed in that role.
What are the values that drive you?
CG: My father is a former Marine, so it has been embedded within me from a very early age to work hard with integrity, always do the best job possible, and there is a solution for every problem; sometimes, it just takes a few tries to find the right one. I push myself harder than anyone else ever will because I hate to fail. I am always trying to make sure that I do the best job possible, or I am the best manager I can be because I believe as an employee, I should be the best representative of the company I work at for all the world to see. As E.L. James once said, “If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.” and C.S. Lewis said, “Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.” and I live by those statements in all that I do.
What is the most interesting thing you’ve done while at MGroup™ or something that was the most memorable about working at MGroup™?
CG: I’ve gotten to do a lot of different things at the MGroup since I have now worked in 4 different roles in 3 different departments, but I would say that the most memorable thing about working for the MGroup is having Kyndra McIntosh, a former employee, marry me at the house of our former CEO and current CFO, Dave and Patti Murray. It was an impromptu wedding, planned in a week with only $100 spent on decorations, held at a beautiful location, and could not have been more perfect. I was blessed with the coworkers who came to help decorate, take pictures, and stand as a witness and the fact that my CEO and CFO so graciously offered their house so that I could get married. What other company would allow their employees to take time out of their day to help another co-worker get married?! Few that I am aware of.
The other memorable moments that I miss are the random ‘Jenga breaks’ that we would take while working in the Annex. Days would get stressful, and someone would yell out, ‘Jenga break,’ and we would all meet in the center room at the Annex, play a few turns with the giant Jenga, laugh, joke, and have fun, and then go back to our desks feeling more relaxed and ready to do our work again. My co-workers made work fun, and I miss seeing their faces daily and being able to chit-chat with them, but I love not having to commute 50 miles one way to get to work.
